War Machine
Netflix | Release Date: May 26, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
13
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranMay 24, 2017
War Machine is the first of Australian filmmaker Michod's three films...to have a dominant sense of humor. What unites it with its predecessors is Michod's fierce intelligence and formidable directing skill. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 26, 2017
It’s deliberately over the top, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some observers say Pitt made huge miscalculations in his acting choices with the result being the worst performance of his career — but I found it to be a brazenly effective piece of work, well-suited to the material. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMay 29, 2017
It’s a smart, sharp spitball of a film, but it would’ve been better with a smaller, subtler hammer. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonMay 29, 2017
A messy, troubling and strangely enjoyable film. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonMay 29, 2017
War Machine, with a screenplay and direction by David Michod (of 2010’s ferocious “Animal Kingdom”), is a comedy because, as per the old Angela Carter line, it’s tragedy happening to other people. But it’s also a highly accessible examination of why the Afghanistan war couldn’t be won the way we—in the person of Gen. McChrystal—were fighting it. Read full review
75
ConsequenceBlake GobleMay 27, 2017
The humor and the indictment of the warrior mentality win out. Michôd’s better instincts take over, many of the crude jokes land with force, and Pitt is hilarious in this mode. Read full review
70
Village VoiceBilge EbiriJun 15, 2017
It’s a complex subject, to say the least. And the film struggles at times with trying to make parodic jabs at a serious topic – it never quite seems to go far enough with its satire. But Pitt’s ridiculous, wildly over-the-top performance somehow keeps it all together. Whenever he’s onscreen, the film finds its soul, its heart, and its funny bone. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekMay 25, 2017
Examples of absurdly misguided thinking--on the part of the U.S. military and the government--stack up quickly, and Michôd tracks it all with a sly wink. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 25, 2017
After a sluggish and chaotic start, War Machine finds its groove and becomes its own thing: a mordant, cleareyed critique of American war-making that is all the more devastating for being affectionately drawn. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMay 22, 2017
The film's scabrous, sometimes arch, other times spot-on critique ultimately comes together in an effective finale that retroactively puts a better light on the entire film than might have seemed possible during some of the earlier, rougher moments. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnMay 22, 2017
The movie veers from the broad doomsday satire of the “Dr. Strangelove” variety to a more subtle portrait of institutional failure, and doesn’t always succeed at modulating its tones, but it’s nevertheless a searing critique. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 29, 2017
It’s funny and sad and weary and wise, which feels just about right for now. War Machine is a weird, unsettled movie for a weird, unsettled time. Read full review
62
Paste MagazineAnthony SalveggiJun 1, 2017
The problem with War Machine is its difficulty keeping its tone consistent in the service of a compelling story or dramatic rendering of ideas. Read full review
60
CineVueChris MachellMay 29, 2017
War Machine is a good film but not a great one, hamstrung by too many ideas and too little focus, its effectiveness eroded as it pulls itself in multiple tonal directions. Read full review
60
SalonMax CeaMay 25, 2017
No one — not McMahon (or McChrystal), the military, the State Department, President Obama or the press — comes out looking good. And yet, none of these characters or institutions comes away looking all that bad either. Read full review
60
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoMay 25, 2017
Michôd’s military dramedy is more about press tours, TV interviews and power plays. That’s what makes this Netflix new release redeeming in its political poignancy – but having Brad Pitt doesn’t hurt. Read full review
52
IGNJosh LasserJun 1, 2017
After a while, rather than just being funny (in a dark way), it's questionable why one should sit through the whole thing. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMay 26, 2017
Critics have a habit of calling movies tonally inconsistent, but this should now be the textbook example, a film that veers wildly from war movie to character drama to satire to history piece to a blended gray of nothing. Read full review
50
VoxAlissa WilkinsonMay 25, 2017
It’s not a great film, but it’s interesting one. Read full review
50
SlateJoshua KeatingMay 25, 2017
War Machine is unexpectedly flat and disjointed, and it’s hard to know whether to blame this on Michôd (an Australian director best known for his excellent 2010 crime melodrama, Animal Kingdom) or the general bad vibes around the project. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 25, 2017
The too-blunt comedy defangs the film. As does the irritating voiceover from the Rolling Stone reporter, played Scoot McNary, which breaks a cardinal rule of filmmaking: show, don't tell. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartMay 25, 2017
Half dark, deliciously topical political satire and half somber portrait of a flailing counterinsurgency effort. The two don’t mesh well, and given the number of modern war movies already out there, it should have stuck with the former. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyMay 24, 2017
This is the most bizarre lead performance of Pitt’s career, as he plays McMahon as a stroke victim doing the world’s worst impression of George Clooney. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineChuck BowenMay 23, 2017
Writer-director David Michôd's film renders existential crises of American entitlement dull and tedious. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonMay 22, 2017
This satire boasts plenty of ideas but is only occasionally compelling. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 22, 2017
Not funny enough to be satire, not realistic enough to count as political commentary, not exciting enough to work as a war movie, David Michôd’s supposedly Helleresque romp, released on Netflix, is an imperfect non-storm of unsuccess. Read full review
35
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeMay 22, 2017
What’s most dispiriting about War Machine is that you can sense the satire it wants to be — and could have been — but never becomes. Read full review
30
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 22, 2017
Everyone has a different idea of what’s funny, but it’s hard to imagine anyone being amused by War Machine, a colossally miscalculated satire. Read full review
25
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezMay 22, 2017
With no plot to speak of, a baggy tangent across Europe in the mid-section, and no forward momentum, War Machine soon descends into the quicksand of its own design and never recovers. From there it’s an enervating slog of two hours that invites sleep. Read full review
20
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 25, 2017
A fantastically dreary and flatulent anti-war satire. Read full review
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